Automatic machine for finishing horseshoe-nails.



No. 746,766. v PATENTED DEC. 15, 1903. L. WEAVER.

AUTOMATIC MACHINE FOE FINISHING HGRSESHOE NAILS;

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No.746,766. v PATENTED 11Be.15,1903.

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UNITED STATES Patented Ileceinber 15, 1903.

PATENT OFFICE.

LLOYD WEAVER, SEYMOUR, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO THE FOWLER NAIL 00., OFSEYMOUR, CONNECTICUT, A CORPORATION.

AUTOMATIC MACHINE FOR FINISHING HORSESHOE-NAILS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 746,766, dated December15, 1903. Application filed June 29, 1903. Serial No. 163,607. (Nomodel.)

ful Improvement in Automatic Machines for Finishing Horseshoe-Nails; andIdo hereby declare the following, when taken in connection with theaccompanyingdrawings and the.

characters of reference marked thereon, to be a full, clear, and exactdescription of the same, and which said drawings constitute part of thisspecification, and represent, in

Figure 1, a partial plan view of a machine constructed in accordancewith my invention; Fig. 1, a broken detail view, in side elevation,showing the slide employed to operate the pointing device, the means foroperating the slide, and the utilization of the slide to operate thepawl that moves the nail-blankcarrying ring step by step; Fig. 2,abroken side view of the machine; Fig. 3, an enlarged broken viewshowing those portions of the nail-blank-carrying dial and thenail-blankcarrying ring where the transference of the headed blanks fromthe former to the latter takes place; Fig. 4, a broken view, in verticalsection, on the line a b of Fig. 3.

My invention relates to an improvement inmachines for finishinghorseshoe-nails, and more particularly to devices for automaticallyshifting in position and transferring the headed blanks from the headinginstrumentalities of the machine to the pointing instrumentalities ofthe machine, whereby the hand ling of the nails after being headed andbefore being pointed is avoided and a great economy of time and labor issecured.

With these ends in view my invention consists in an automatic machinefor heading and pointing nails having certain details of constructionand combinations of parts as will be hereinafter described,and pointedout in the claims.

In carrying out my invention difierent heading and pointinginstrumentalities may be employed, as my improved automatic transferringdevice will operate independently of the particular character of' suchinstrumentalities. It is not necessary, therefore, to the disclosure ofmy present invention for me to show or describe in any great detail theheading or pointing instrnmentalities, which I shall refer to only sofar as necessary to the understanding of my particular improvement. I

As herein shown, I employ a horizontallyarranged nail-blank-carryingdial 2, formed with a series of pockets 3, extending horizontally inwardfrom its edge and intersecting its upper and lower faces, so as to beopen at the top and bottom. The unheaded blanks a' are placed in thesepockets by hand, with their head ends outward. The dial is actuated instep-by-step movement by means of a very long pawl 4, which, as shown byFig. 3, drops into the pockets 3, which take the place of a rack.The'said pawl is operated by an eccentric-strap 6, encircling aneccentric 7, located on a driving-shaft 8, furnished with a powerpulley9. As the dial 2 is moved step by step the unheaded nail-blanks in itspocket 3 are successively brought under a heading-die l0,

mounted in a slide 11, working up and down in an upright 12 of themachine-frame. This slide is connected by a swinging frame 13 withtheshort arm of a lever 14:, the long arm of-which is operated upon by acam 15 on the shaft 8 aforesaid. When the blanks are placed in thepockets 3 of the dial 2, they are prevented from dropping through thesame by a large circular plate 16, over which they ride as the dialrevolves. This plate 16 has an annular flange 17, and the distancebetween the inner face-of this flange and the inner ends of the pockets3 is just enough greater than the length of a nail-blank to permit theblanks to travel without binding and yet be prevented from unduelengthwise movement. In order to accomplish this result, the flange 17is difierentiated in thickness, as shown in Fig. 1, which representsthat half of the flange which confines the nailblanks after they havebeen headed as wider than that portion of the flange which confines theblanks prior to their being headed to the extent of the difference inthe length of the blanks before and after heading. In other words, onehalf of this flange'is wider than the other half to take into accountthe change in the length of the blanks before and after heading.

The parts thus far described are the nailheading instrumentalities of myimproved machine.

The said dial 2 is placed with its edge in such relation to thehorizontally-arranged nail-blank-carrying ring 18 of the nail-pointinginstrumentalities now to be described that the nail-heads I) now formedupon the blanks are carried over the flat upper face of an annularflange 19, formed upon the lower edge of the outer face of the said ring18 and provided with a continuous series of vertically-arrangednail-headreceiving notches 20, spaced conformably with the pockets 3 inthe dial 2. The said ringis formed upon its upper edge withratchet-teeth 21, through which it is actuated in step-by-step rotationby a pawl 22, hung on a horizontal stud 22, mounted in the upper end ofan arm 22, the lower end of which is rigidly secured to a rock-shaft 23,furnished with an arm 24, carrying a roller 25, which engages with acam-surface 26, located upon one corner of a slide 27, carrying apointing-die 28, the felly 29 of which is secured to the frame of themachine. Four angle-shaped bearings 18% mounted upon posts 18", risefrom the bed of the machine, as shown in 'Figs. land 4, the ring ridingon these bearmgs. v

The dial 2 and ring 18 are timed so that every time the dial is moved astep it brings the head of a headed nail-blank directly over one of thevertical notches 20 in the flange 19 of the ring and the body of thesame blank directly over a radially-arranged clearanceopening 30 in theplate 16 and annular plate 40. Directly after a nail blank has beenbrought into the described position a small transferring-plunger 31,forming a member of my improved automatic transferring device, descendsand strikes the upper face of the nail-head, near the neck thereof, andjust outside of the upper outer corner 32 of the flange 19. As theplunger descends the headed blank turns upon this corner as upon apivot, swerves downward, and finally takes an upright position, in whichit is suspended by the flaring sides of its head in the said notch 20.In order to prevent the nail-blank from dropping through theclearance-opening 30 in the plate 16, I employ a yielding nail-support33, consisting of a long finger mounted upon one end of a shortrock-shaft 34, journaled in a bracket 35 and furnished with a lightcoiled spring 36, which normally holds the finger 33 up in position toprevent the nails from dropping through the plate 16 as they aresuccessively brought over the opening 30; but the spring 36 is so weakthat when the blank is struck by the transferring-plunger 13 the finger33 is swung down out of the way against the tension of the spring,which, however, immediately returns the finger to its supportingposition after the end of the nail is disengaged from its end, thefinger being prevented from rising too high by its engagement with thelower face of the plate 16. The said plunger 31 is adjustably mounted inthe outer end of a long arm 37, rigidly supported in the slide 11, sothat every time the slide 11 descends with the die 10 for heading ablank the plunger 31 will descend for transferring a headed blank fromthe dial to the ring. The headed blank having been so transferred iscarried by the ring to the point ing-dies 28 and 29, by which it ispointed and finished as a nail. The nails are removed from the ring bymeans of a beveled stripping-finger 38, which crowds them out of thenotches and causes them to drop by gravity through an opening 39 in anannular plate 40, arranged concentrically with and below the ring 18 andsupported upon posts 41, rising from thebed of the machine. As hereinshown,,I have provided for the reciprocation of the slide 27 byfurnishing it with two depending lugs 42, which are acted upon by aneccentric 43, located between them and mounted upon a long shaft 44,supported in brackets 45 and furnished at its opposite end, Fig. 2, witha beveled pinion 46, meshing into a corresponding pinion 47, mounted ona short shaft 48, also carrying a spur-gear 49, meashing into a largerspur-gear 50, mounted upon a stud 51 and in turn meshing into a smallerspur-gear 52, mounted on the main shaft 8.

Heretofore it has been customary to head and point nail-blanks inseparate machines, rendering it necessary to take the nails headed inthe heading-machine and feed them manually into the pointing-machine..My improved automatic transferring device unites, as it were, the twomachines and converts them into a single automatic heading and pointingmachine and saves the time and labor hitherto expended in handling andfeeding the headed blanks.

It is apparent that in carrying out my invention I may modify theparticular character of the heading and pointing device herein shown anddescribed, as my improved automatic transferring device does notdependupon its operation for any particular heading and pointinginstrumentalities. Furthermore, it is obvious that my automatictransferring device may take other forms than that shown. I wouldtherefore have it understood that I do notlimit myself to theconstruction shown and described, but hold myself at liberty to makesuch departures therefrom as fairly'fall within the spirit and scope ofmy invention.

Having fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a machine for headingand pointing nails, the combination withheading instrumentalities including a horizontally-arranged dial havinghorizontal nail-blank-receiving pockets; of pointing instrumentalitiesincluding a ring having vertical nail-blank-receiving notches and setedge to edge with the ing its upper and lower faces and a plate oversaid dial so that nail-blanks carried thereby will have their heads brolight into registration with its notches; and an automatic transferringdevice located at the conjunction of the dial and ring and arranged toengage with the nail-blanks as they are successively presented to thenotches in the ring and deflect them from horizontal to verticalpositions in which latter they are supported by the ring.

2. In a machine for heading and pointing nails, the combination withheading instrumentalities-includinga dial having horizontalnail-blank-receiving pockets; of pointing instrumentalities including aring set edge to edge with the dial and having vertically-arrangednail-blank-receiving notches formed in its edge; and an automatictransferring device located at the conjunction of the dial and ring andcomprising a plunger arranged to strike the upper faces of the heads ofthe i headed blanks,whereby the same are swerved from horizontal tovertical positions in which latter they are supported by their heads inthe notches of the ring.

3. In a machine for heading and pointing nails, the combination withheading devices including a horizontally-arranged dial constructed andadapted to be moved step by step and having nail-hlank-receiving pocketsextending horizontally inward and intersectwhich the said dial is movedstep by step and which is furnished with a clearance-open ing with whichthe blanks are successively brought into registration by the saidstep-bystep movement of the dial; of pointing instrnmentalitiesincluding a ring setedge to, edge with the dial and havinga flangeformed with vertically-arranged nail-blank-receiving notches; anautomatic transferring device for engaging with the headed blanks whenthe same are registered with the said opening and the notches in thering and swerving them from horizontal to vertical positions in whichlatter they are supported by the ring, and a yielding nail-supportlocated below the said clearance-opening in the plate.

4. In a machine for heading and pointing nails, the combination withheading instrumentalities including a dial constructed and adapted to bemoved step by step and having nail-blank-receiving pockets and a platelocated below the said dial and having a clearance-opening over whichthe said pockets are successively brought; of pointinginstrumentali'ties including a ring set edge to edge with the said dialand havinga flange formed with vertically arranged nail blank rreceiving notches; and an automatic transferring device comprising a'plunger located directly above the conjunction of the dial and ring inposition to engage with the blanks and swerve the same from horizontalpositions with respect to the dial to vertical positions in which latterthey are supported in the slots of the ring on the corner of the saidflange of which theyare turned as upon a pivot, and a yieldingnail-support located below the clearanceopening of the plate fortemporarily supporting the nails in horizontal positions preparatory totheir transference.

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the presence oftwo subscribing witnesses.

LLOYD WEAVER,

Witnesses:

FREDERIC C. EARLE, CLARA L. WEED.

